This morning one of my colleagues, Joseph Lazzaro, who heavily uses technical analysis, posted an article titled General Cable Corp.: Stopped-Out.

I have never used technical analysis to make investment decisions, but I have used charts for general long term trends examining a stock from a historical perspective. I think in the case of General Cable Corp. (BGC) it may prove untimely to bail out now based on just technical analysis.

Yesterday Hasbro, Inc. (HAS) reported 2009 fourth quarter and full-year results.

For the fourth quarter 2009, the Company reported net revenues of $1.38 billion, an increase of $144.1 million or 12%, compared to $1.23 billion a year ago. 2009 fourth quarter revenues grew 7% excluding a $55.4 million positive impact of foreign exchange. The Company reported net earnings for the quarter of $165.6 million or $1.09 per diluted share, an increase of $72.0 million or 77%, compared to $93.6 million or $0.62 per diluted share in 2008.

The strong results in a bad year support my contention that today's stock market, even in these uncertain times, does have plenty of bargains.

If I was making my 2010 picks list today, I might have found a spot for Ross Stores (ROST), the holding company for Ross Dress for Less. Analysts have a hold or market perform rating on the stock, but that is meaningless to me. What does have meaning is 20% sales growth in a dismal year, contributing to a PEG ratio of .75 and an under market P/E of 12.66 (averaging trailing and future figures).

These are very good numbers, however, in reviewing some of the data points with Raphael P., a helpful broker in the Pleasant Hill, CA Wells Fargo (WFC) office, I was reminded that different financial sites have varying numbers. They usually vary by small fractions, as did the Wells data compared to the Aol (AOL) Money and Finance site, so I would encourage investors to check multiple sources.

During my tenure at BloggingStocks I have expressed my opinion often about the contribution that dividends make to your overall return. Most shrewd investors, and especially "my pal Warren," know this and understand why I re-emphasize the point when I make my annual selections.

By now I hope you have had a chance to peruse my picks for 2010. If not the links below will give you another opportunity.

For the first time my annual picks will include a stock option. I have written numerous blogs this year about something called "naked puts" -- that is a sell to open put position -- committing me to buy a certain number of shares by a certain date if the closing price is less than the strike price.

In this case I have selected the E*TRADE (ETFC) January 2011, $2.50 puts last traded on December 28, 2009 at $0.97 for a 39% return. If it expires, as I am betting it will, by the third Friday of that month I have no further obligation.

This type of option transaction is not available to most investors. It is marginable, but you pay no interest.

The Olympics are coming! The Olympics are coming to Brasil Telecom (BTM) -- well actually to Rio de Janeiro, where BTM is headquartered, in the summer of 2016.

This company came to my attention while screening mid-caps for yield, currently a healthy 7.81% (not distributed quarterly) and a very low price-to-sales ratio of 0.52. This first glance was followed by more scrutiny with an interest in Brazilian companies for potential growth and diversification.

If you are in the right place at the right time, then you have the most opportunity. That pretty much explains why I recently bought shares of the Raytheon Company (RTN) -- and why it is one of my picks for 2010.

Raytheon (whose name means "light of the gods") is a top 10 prime contractor to the Pentagon. The list of critical systems it makes include reconnaissance, targeting, and navigation systems. It is a leader in missile defense systems, which include the Patriot, Sidewinder, and Tomahawk systems. Raytheon also makes radios, air traffic control systems and radars, satellite communications systems and provides commercial electronics products and services as well.

How hungry are you? The world is becoming hungrier all the time and Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM) seeks to fill that need.

It is one of the world's largest processors of oilseeds, corn, and wheat. It turns corn into syrups, sweeteners, citric and lactic acids, and ethanol to fill your tank too. ADM also produces wheat flour for bakeries and pasta makers; cocoa and chocolate products for confectioners; animal-feed ingredients for farmers, and malt for brewers. It operates one of the world's largest crop origination and transportation networks, through which it connects crops and their markets across the globe.

Many retail investors have been shrieking as General Electric (GE) hovers around ten year lows and has gone nowhere all year while almost everything else has appreciated. GE is on hot lists and not lists for 2010.

It is one of my holdover picks from 2009 and if it does not improve in the next few days will be my only loser -- for the other, a winner, see: Chasing Value: 2010 -- #3 EZCORP.

The first four picks were all from the contenders list, but here I reach back to earlier in the year, when in May, I wrote about why I thought Williams Companies Inc. (WMB) would outperform four other, more popular stocks.

I compared it to Apple Inc. (AAPL), Google Inc. (GOOG), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B).

During the past seven months this turned out to be true for half the period, but Apple came on strong and passed it by the second review.

This year's selections do not seem to offer the same dividend opportunities of years past and my first three choices have none at all. That changes with this pick. Home Depot (HD) is distributing a 3.09% yield.

It's getting tiring to relate the demise of various companies to the residential market collapse, high unemployment and so forth, but certainly this company has been greatly affected. In addition, Home Depot was already struggling to recover from a "me first" CEO who happened to be forced out with the small stipend of $200 million, leaving behind shabby stores with questionable customer service while at the same time facing strong competition from Lowe's Cos (LOW).

One of the easiest stock picks for me to make this year is also one I made last year and for many of the same reasons. In a time of economic turmoil, high unemployment and tight liquidity, what could be more practical than pawn shops and cash advance outlets? EZCORP (EZPW) made me money last year and I expect more of the same as it continues to expand.

Most investors wish they could have gotten in on the ground floor of the hugely successful The Home Depot Corporation (HD), McDonald's Corporation (MCD), or Starbucks Corporation (SBUX) franchises while they only had a few hundred outlets. In the case of EZCORP that is still possible.

Where as my fist pick, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) is a large cap diversified conglomerate, my second, Grubb & Ellis Co. (GBE), is a micro-cap stock of $90 million.

GBE is a network of nearly 130 owned and affiliated offices, providing commercial real estate services to property owners, institutional investors, and tenants. Its 1,800 brokers and some 6,000 affiliated real estate professionals offer advisory and brokerage, property management, construction consultation, and other services.

The company has been devastated by the bursting of the residential real estate market bubble, lost equity value, illiquid capital markets and the still impending concern over the commercial real estate market facing rising vacancies as hundreds of billions of dollars in loans must be rolled over.

If there ever was a stock that was hiding in plain sight, it is that of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) which is capitalized at a tad over $150 billion and run by "my pal Warren" and his pal Charlie. That's Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, perhaps the most successful investors in five generations.

Berkshire Hathaway, a textile mill, was Buffett's first turn-around play. He was successful and started generating significant amounts of free cash-flow that allowed him to invest in other things. Those investments also paid off and eventually the original enterprise became the namesake of today's diversified giant holding company.

I selected BRK.B for numerous reasons and believe it will easily beat the market next year as has been it's history.

To arrive at this years ten picks I scoured business journals and editorials, online and off. I also ran through a series of stock screens repeatedly over the last few months filtering for five primary value metrics identifying stocks worthy of further consideration.

The 5 data points were price-to-sales (P/S), price-to-book (P/B), price-to-cash flow (P/CF), dividend yield and return-on-equity (ROE). I did look at other things but these were the subject of my initial focus.